The city on Thursday evening plans to turn on 325 recently installed LED lights on existing nooks and crannies around City Hall and its plaza as well as on new poles. The inaugural illumination is part of the final Beer Garden on the Bricks of 2016, also Thursday evening (a.k.a. tonight).
The lights are supposed to not only look more inviting than their less-energy-efficient predecessors, but make the area that much safer in the darkness and save Boston money in the long run.
And! In much the way the Pru lights up downtown, the City Hall lights will shine different hues at different times: green and white for St. Patrick's Day; red, white, and blue for July 4; red and white for the next time the Sox win the World Series (sit tight); etc.
As for whether the lights will make City Hall itself any more attractive to its legion of love-to-hate-it detractors, that remains to be seen. We bet the brutalist building is too good a target for snobby architectural ire for that to happen.
- Boston Will Try to Enliven Its Brutalist Punching-Bag a Bit [Curbed Boston]
- What Is the Ugliest Building in Boston (Besides City Hall)? [Curbed Boston]